It was a good game against Grandview and the team did what I knew they could do. We are now excited and preparing for the championship. Darius Hicks has changed from playing on the field to coaching on the side. He still feels the rush of the games and the play but as a coach it’s a different type of adrenalin rush to watch the team do what the all work so hard every week to accomplish.  Darius Hicks is a Morningside College alum a current defensive back coach for the mustangs. Darius is 26 and from Kansas Missouri where he started his football career, he attended Morningside college from 2012- 2015 and started coaching there as a defensive back not very long after graduating. Darius also known as coach Hicks is passionate about football and takes pride in his accomplishments with the team. He relates to the men on the team because not that long ago he was one of them.

Hicks at first found this as a struggle being when he tried to establish authority at when he first began coaching. Yes, the players respected him but some of them went from calling him a teammate to coach with in a year. But he took on the challenge and did not use any scare tactics but just talked to them as friends and let them now that as a coach he will not tolerate certain behavior anymore. With each year it becomes easier for him to draw that line and make it clear to how his relationship with the players should be. He did not take the fun out of it though he still bounded with the player and was opened himself up to be their mentor. Wendy Wilde, Administrative Assistant for

Athletics has watched Darius grow into the coach he is today. Wendy also knew Hicks when he attended Morningside as a player and knew that he would be a good leader and is good with the team now. Wendy talked about how every year he hosts a thanksgiving dinner and cooks everything himself and invited the men on the team who may not be able to go home during break because of weather or because of how far they live. He opens his doors up to them and makes sure everyone takes a plate home because he makes so much. Darius Hick is a man with a big heart and when it comes to his team there is not much, he won’t do for them. Player Anthony Sims is very close with coach Hicks and just feels like not all the people at the school or even some people on the team understand him and his life’s struggles so far.

Anthony who goes by Sims says that he knows he can always go to Hicks because he knows, he understands his struggles and how hard he needs to ball on the field because football has been more than just a sport it’s been his way out. Through his time at attended Morningside Darius has faced a series of struggles with health both personal and with his family. When Darius was a junior both his parents were diagnosed with cancer. He wanted to be there with his family during this hard time financially and emotionally with his older brother who is in a wheelchair being the only one at home at the time. He felt obligated to help as much as he could, so he worked a part time job on his off season and when he didn’t have games or practices. His father did not survive the cancer, but his mother did. This took a toll on Hicks because everything he knew about being a man he learned from his father. With the family supporting each other they all got through that hard death. 5 years later Darius himself was diagnosed with cancer and due to other reasons as well took a break from coaching the mustangs. During that break he did not end his contact with some of the players because he was more than just a coach to them, he was a mentor. Hicks started chemotherapy and caught the cancer early enough that he was able to beat it. Darius not in good health is back with the mustangs and has been having a great season with the team as they go undefeated into the national championship to Louisiana. Darius has high hope for this next game and for the teams future.